The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as an electrophotographic copying apparatus.
Conventionally, in electrophotographic copying apparatuses delivered from a factory, a photosensitive drum and cleaning blade are set i.e., installed at a user's site of installation. If the unused drum and blade are suddenly brought into contact with each other when the drum is rotated, a great frictional force is produced between them. As a result, the surface of the drum may be damaged, or the blade may get turned up to spoil its edge face. If damaged, the blade edge face cannot enjoy a satisfactory cleaning effect, allowing a film of residual toner to be formed on the drum surface.
In initially setting the electrophotographic photosensitive drum at the user's station, therefore, an operator applies a powdered lubricant, such as polyvinyidene fluoride with a particle diameter of about 5 microns, to the peripheral surface of the drum. Thereafter, the drum is set in the apparatus and rotated, and the cleaning blade is brought into contact with the drum surface. Thus, the frictional force between blade and drum at the time of initial setting is reduced.
However, the manual initial setting work costs the operator much time and labor. Since the surface of the photosensitive drum is very delicate and liable to be damaged or marked with fingerprints during the application of the powdered lubricant or the mounting of the drum in the apparatus housing. Thus, the operator's manual operation is not very reliable.